2011 - Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science

Tommy exclaimed.
“Yeah, he’s got a baby girl. She was born last
spring.”
“Well, we gotta congratulate him,” I said,
smiling. “You know, I never expected Bobby to
be the first guy in our group to get married. That
was a total surprise.”
“Hey, he’s a sweet guy. Yeah, he’s kinda
awkward, but he’s as solid as they come,” Tommy
said in his defense.
“Yeah, I know. I love Bobby,” I said,
chuckling.
“Yeah, her name’s Alexandra.”
“Wow, Bobby with a kid. He’s gonna be a
great dad,” I added.
“Yeah, he really is. I wish him and Angie the
best. Oh, she’s adorable,” Tommy said, as Mark
pulled out his cell phone and showed us a picture
of Bobby and Alexandra together.
All these names hit me like rain on a window
pane. They hit and then dripped
down on me for a while, leaving
trails of memories behind. I felt
even more ashamed.
After I went to college, and
the more I stayed there and the
less I came back home, I didn’t
want to think about my friends
back at home. When my parents
finally moved, I didn’t have a
reason to go back anymore, I was
relieved. I didn’t want to remain
like them, always trapped in their
small town world, never stepping
beyond the boundaries of the city
and lifestyle. They were immune to life outside
that’s going on around the world. I was tired of
their obliviousness, their blindness. I didn’t want
to be a part of that. I wanted to branch out and
be a citizen of the world, a cosmopolitan, and not
just one of this town I grew up in. So I slowly
started to neglect my old friends on purpose. I
started to ignore their e-mails and texts. I cut
calls short. I tried to forget them and move along.
I felt like they wouldn’t understand. I felt like I
had more important things to do – more important
than them. And Mark, my best friend since
[ ]
Mark, my
best friend
since freshmen
year, was
nothing but
a faint
memory to
me.
freshmen year, was nothing but a faint memory
to me.
Guilt hit me as I downed my coffee and threw
my used sugar packets in the empty cup. I stared
over at a young mother fussing over her little boy
who spilled some of his smoothie on his shirt,
and at an older man flipping through the TIME
magazine I was looking at earlier. Mark didn’t
know. None of them knew. But I still felt guilt.
“So how’s everything going with Tara? Are
you still seeing her or…,” I offered, as I snapped
out of my reverie. I was trying to make amends.
Trying to fix the mistake they didn’t know I
made.
“Yeah! Everything’s great with Tara. Really
great. We’re still seeing each other and we’re
happy,” Mark said, clearly pleased that I was
speaking to him now and blushed when Tommy
and I gave each other a knowing look and smiled.
“Speaking of which,” he continued, “I asked her
to marry me last week. She said
yes. We’re engaged.”
Tommy and I both exploded
out of our chairs, patting his back
and shaking his hand. I had been
too busy staring into my coffee to
see the ring on his finger, but I
noticed it now.
“Congratulations! Wow! This
is great. Tommy, isn’t this great?”
I shouted, not caring about the
people around me who were starting
to stare.
“Yeah! This is something else.
Mark, you’re something else. How
come you never told us?”
“You guys never gave me a chance to,” Mark
said, grinning. We took our seats. I realized then
that this world too was moving on without me.
We exchanged more stories and recounted old
ones, like the time we rolled our vice principal’s
house and went on that camping trip together.
The more the memories came back, the more
I wanted to talk. The more we spoke the more
Mark smiled and laughed. It was nice, the three
of us laughing and talking again. Like old times.
But it didn’t last long.
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